Aug 10, 2026 · 6 min · 6 segments
State House News Service reporter Colin Young deep dives into home rule petitions and how they're aimed at addressing local communities issues.
Carrie HealyHost
Municipalities across the Commonwealth are increasingly facing tight budgets, sending a steady stream of home rule petitions up to Beacon Hill.
Those are local policy tools that let individual cities and towns make decisions unique to them.
like imposing special taxes or asking for extra liquor licenses beyond the regular limit colin can you walk us through the municipal perspective on these financial workarounds why are local officials telling you they need home rule petitions for their very survival
yeah this is something that is always playing out on beacon hill but it has been a particular sore spot this session where cities and towns are really feeling the squeeze.
And the aid that comes down from the state level hasn't been increasing at the rate that municipalities would like it to be.
And so the cities and towns have to come up with the answers themselves.
And cities and towns have been really pleading with Beacon Hill to provide more aid, to do something to make things easier on them so they don't have to fire teachers or lay off firefighters.
And so towns are coming up with individual ways that their situations might be made a little bit easier.
Municipalities across the Commonwealth are increasingly facing tight budgets, sending a steady stream of home rule petitions up to Beacon Hill.
Those are local policy tools that let individual cities and towns make decisions unique to them.
like imposing special taxes or asking for extra liquor licenses beyond the regular limit colin can you walk us through the municipal perspective on these financial workarounds why are local officials telling you they need home rule petitions for their very survival
yeah this is something that is always playing out on beacon hill but it has been a particular sore spot this session where cities and towns are really feeling the squeeze.
And the aid that comes down from the state level hasn't been increasing at the rate that municipalities would like it to be.
And so the cities and towns have to come up with the answers themselves.
And cities and towns have been really pleading with Beacon Hill to provide more aid, to do something to make things easier on them so they don't have to fire teachers or lay off firefighters.
And so towns are coming up with individual ways that their situations might be made a little bit easier.
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